A Girl and Her Wolf
by Amaya Takeshi
Summary: One is cursed into a beast form, the other suffers a tragic loss. One has forgotten what life was like without loneliness, the other fights bravely against it for the first time... Only they can save each other. Inspired by Beauty and the Beast. AU, 1xR
1. A Meeting in the Woods

"A Girl and Her Wolf"

Amaya Takeshi

January 2008

_Two souls find each other by chance, and in each other the souls find everything they ever needed._

Standard disclaimers apply. Rating may change in the future.

* * *

Chapter 1. A Meeting in the Woods

The wagon rumbled down the frosted path, rocking side to side every time the wheels rolled over one of the many dips and bumps in the uneven road. Aside from the creaking of the axles and the groaning of the planks, the only other sounds that surrounded the travelers were the occasional snort of hot air from the horse that pulled them and the slightly muffled but steady clip-clop of its shoes on the densely packed snow path.

Still, the silence of the forest today was oppressive.

It was bitterly cold. Rolling, waist-high drifts blanketed the dreary landscape, and the skeletons of the trees bowed under their crowns of snow. The snow was exceptionally fluffy and deceptively inviting, unmarred by footprint or shovel. No one ventured out when the winter became like this… when the day was dying, the sky was the color of snow, and the snow was the color of ash.

The figure driving the horse was swaddled in coarse, woolen blankets, but still he stooped over from the cold. The lantern beside him was to provide light, not heat. His eyes were bright and gleaming, though, in the shadows under his hood. They darted left and right, left and right, as if waiting for certain danger to strike. He was a poor, uneducated, simple man, but his sixty years had taught him well to trust his instincts. There was something wrong, his old bones were sure of it. Something was about to happen.

"Father," a small, soft voice came from behind him, interrupting his frantic searching and causing him to jump a little. "Maybe we should turn around after all. That tavern we passed is not far behind us, if we turn around now we will be there in just a few minutes. Look, you can still see the lights flickering just beyond the trees there. Night is falling quickly, and it would be much better to spend it by the warmth of a fire."

"No, my daughter, I do not feel at ease in these woods, even if we were in a tavern. It would be better to be out of them as soon as possible. We will press on through the night, and by morning we will have arrived at the next town."

"All right, Father. Are you tired? I can take over the reins, if you want to rest a bit."

"Thank you, Relena, but you just stay insi—" his words trailed off as blood drained from his face, and a look of horror replaced it. At that same moment, the horse gave a high-pitched whinny of fear and the wagon lurched to an abrupt stop.

"What's wrong, Father?" Relena poked her head out of the wagon, and let out a gasp.

Just a short distance ahead, large, gray forms were slipping like silky shadows out from under the trees' tangled branches. Wolves. Relena began to tremble and her heartbeat began to race as she finally comprehended the situation. Their path forward was blocked by six of the powerful, intelligent predators. Their yellow eyes burned as they surveyed them, and their sharp teeth glinted in their panting grins. Their breaths came in puffs from mouths that were hot for fresh meat.

The old man picked up a staff and a knife that he had kept beside him. Turning his head slightly but without taking his eyes off of the threat ahead, he whispered urgently, "Relena, run! I'm going to cut the horse loose, and hopefully they'll go for him. When that happens, you must run back to that tavern!"

"But what about you?" she whispered, her fear almost taking her voice away.

"Never mind that! Go find help, Relena, do you understand?" Relena's mouth was dry, and she could only nod. "Run, my child!" With that he brought the knife down on the leather straps tying the horse to the wagon and leapt onto the ground in one motion, brandishing both knife and staff at the beasts.

Relena, too, had gotten out of the back of the wagon, and she turned back one last time to see the horse, now free from its ties, preparing to run, and her father, with feet planted firmly in the snowy ground, preparing to stand and fight. And she saw the wolves, grinning their mad grins, advancing with deliberate, confident steps. Suddenly, she locked eyes with a seventh wolf, a distance up the path, removed from the group and surveying them all. This wolf was not normal. It was not panting, nor did it make any move to approach them. Its coat was of a yellow so pale that it looked like a glowing white, and its sky blue eyes seemed to pierce her mind. It was as if all thought had left her, and she found that she would be content just to look into those icy blues eyes forever. If she could do that, she could forget what was happening, forget who she was, even forget to breathe, and she would be all right with it all… If only she could just… look….

"GO!" her father's yell jolted her from her hypnotization, and she realized that only two or three seconds had passed. And she spun around and took off running at full speed toward the tavern, as both her father and her instinct told her to, leaving behind her the desperate cries of their horse and the growls of the wolves.

*****

She crashed through the wooden door of the tavern and almost stumbled over the threshold. Luckily, she was able to catch herself so that she could remain on her shaky legs as she gulped for air.

Her violent entrance served quite well to catch the attention of every patron in the establishment. But while their attention was caught by her explosive entrance, it was held only by the fact that she was a young, slender girl, unescorted, face flushed with blood, waist-length blond hair loose, eyes wild with fear, pink lips parted and chest heaving as she drew ragged breaths.

She had not registered it as her eyes darted frantically about the room, from one patron to another, but every person in here was a man. And every pair of eyes was on her.

Too wound up with fear to even feel embarrassment, she immediately began to plead between pants. "Please! Somebody, please, help me! My father, wolves, up the path! I need help!"

Some people turned away, back to their drinks. They did not want to go up against the demon wolves that were said to prowl these areas. The ones who didn't turn their backs on her continued to gawk at her, their lecherous leering told her that they, too, cared nothing about her plight. No one in the tavern was willing to help her, or even to take her seriously. Tears of frustration started to come to her eyes. She had left her father out there with the wolves, and time was running out!

"Please, somebody! Anybody!"

A wicked chuckle of a deep, raspy voice from behind cut off her desperate pleading. "You sweet little thing, I'll help you!" and before she had time to turn around to face the person who spoke to her, she was overwhelmed by the strong stench of alcohol and stale sweat as two thick, hairy arms imprisoned her against a meaty body and a large hand callously groped her left breast.

Relena cried out from the pain of being squeezed. Fully panicking now, she began to kick and struggle with a strength that she did not know she had. She managed to wrench her right arm free and swing it back, catching her molester in the temple with her elbow. She heard him grunt in pain and then growl, but instead of loosening his hold on her as she had hoped, he gripped her even tighter, so that there was pain everywhere now, her ribs, her abdomen, and she could no longer breathe. Relena squeezed her eyes shut and a tiny whimper slipped out.

"Release her."

Relena opened her eyes again when she heard the cold, hard voice. There was a man standing in front of her now. She had not noticed him when she first burst into the place. He was tall, and long, black hair swept around his steely-blue eyes, which were narrowed dangerously at the half-drunken pig still holding onto her.

She felt him stiffen against her back at the command, and then she felt him begin to tremble, but whether from the tension of an anticipated fight or from fear she did not know. Suddenly, his arms were no longer around her body, and she was unceremoniously shoved forward toward the calm, mysterious man.

Expecting to meet the wooden floor in a jarring impact, Relena was surprised when steady arms caught her instead. She blinked and found herself face to face with a broad, flat, warm chest. Dazed, she lifted her face to look up at the man who caught her, and her eyes were met with those icy, expressionless eyes in an equally icy and expressionless face. Expressionless they may have been, but the intensity was still striking. He regarded her for one second, and then he righted her on her feet and firmly pushed her behind him. Then, his attention turned to the meaty man again, and he began to advance.

From behind, all Relena could see now was his shock of hair, which she saw, now that she was closer to him, was actually a very dark brown. Although his coat was thick, she could tell that he was well-muscled and powerful, and when he had his hands on her, she had felt it without a doubt. The strength in his muscles was not like the harshness of the large, dirty man, but had a controlled, calculated, almost machine-like power. And when he began to stride toward the man, she could see that everything in his stance, his steps, the set of his shoulders, projected absolute confidence.

As he closed in on him, the meaty man began to yell and curse, his eyes taking on the panicked look of cornered prey. Suddenly, he lunged his cumbersome body at the man with the intention of landing a punch to his face. With lightning reflexes, the confident man caught his fist in the air with a sharp _smack_ of skin against skin. The next instant, the meaty man's eyes went wise in disbelief and his mouth dropped open in a silent grunt as he doubled over, winded from receiving a fist in the gut.

With a swing of the arm that still held his fist prisoner, the meaty, incapacitated man went flying to the side, knocking over two empty chairs and nearly toppling a table along the way. Then the dark-haired man turned back to Relena. "Take me to your father."

It was completely dark now. Even before he had reached the spot to see it with his own eyes, his senses told him that blood had been spilt. The heat of it was in the air, and the sound of teeth ripping flesh still weighed down the wind.

When they arrived, and the scene lay unveiled before them like some terrible work of art, the young girl beside him uttered a heart-breaking cry and ran to fling herself onto a man lying on a field of red snow. Her father.

He looked around for any signs of danger, but the wolves were no longer in the area. The snowscape was scarred by prints of padded and clawed paws, like pockmarks, and in one area, the marks of boots continually turning and pivoting. In his mind, he could see the man in the process of carving out those markings, trying to defend himself from attacks coming from every direction around him. To the side, there was a trail of indented snow leading into the woods. Something heavy was dragged to form it. Nearby, the wagon lay on its side like some kind of great, dead animal, nearly completely consumed by fire that started from a spilled lantern. Only by its light was the entire scene illuminated, while the heat it gave off felt unnatural and antagonistic in the snowy landscape. And everywhere there was blood. From the smell of it, he could tell that most of it was the old man's; and a great deal of it was a horse's. But a surprising amount of it was wolf blood. He looked to the two on the ground. Not far from where he had fallen, he saw the knife that was his main weapon, along with a staff that had been split in half by jaws with the strength to crush bone. Yes, the knife was still wet with wolf blood. He lifted one eyebrow slightly in grim astonishment. It was not easy to hurt the wolves that lived around here, he knew. The old man had earned his respect, but there was nothing to be done for him anymore. It was pretty much over.

He walked to stand above them, and just then he heard the girl tearfully saying, "Father, look. I brought help. This man came with me. We'll bring you back, and you'll get well again!" He got down on one knee on the other side of the dying man, who he now saw was nearly covered in blood. The tears in his clothes and the wounds on his arms, legs, and neck were clearly in the pattern of claws and teeth. With a great effort, the old man turned his head to look at him. Unexpectedly, his eyes widened at the sight of him, and his already shallow breathing sped up into a raspy grating.

"You… I know… I know what you are… You are… one of them…" The man was surprised and drew back almost imperceptibly. No one had ever said that to him before. How could this one know? Was this the delusion of a fading life talking? He looked deep into the dying eyes, and saw in its bright clarity the absolute lucidity of a man who was ready to leave the world. The absolute wisdom and omniscience. Likewise, the old man was staring deeply into his eyes. They were both measuring the other. His labored breathing calmed a little, as he continued to study him intently.

"But…"

Apparently, he was not finished.

"You… are different." Even with a broken body, his eyes seemed to nod at him in acknowledgement. "Yes…" he paused to swallow what must have been blood in his throat. "Take… care of… her…"

He found himself solemnly nodding the promise to the dying man, though he did not know why. Then the old man turned again to the girl, his daughter.

"Father!" she cried out with a sob. One of her hands were clenched in his own bloody ones, on his chest, and the other lovingly cupped his face. They both understood that they were saying goodbye. "Father, don't leave me, please!" Tears streamed freely down her cheeks.

"Relena… my daughter… I love you… so much…" He took one last shuddering breath. "Be… happy…"


	2. The Last Day of her Old Life

Chapter 2. The Last Day of her Old Life

Relena woke up with a leaden stiffness in her entire body that made it difficult for her to move. But immediately she saw that she was in an unfamiliar place, so she struggled to sit up and examine her surroundings. After a few tries, she managed by propping herself with one arm, while the other clutched her now pounding head. She shut her eyes for a few moments to will the headache away and gather herself, and took her first good look round.

The bright sunlight that streamed in from the glass windows frosty with ice told her that it was already midmorning. Probably sometime between ten or eleven. The three windows cast beams of light, quartered twice by black, metal gratings, onto the foot of the bed and the dark, wooden floor. The bed was large, probably the size of three or four of her own beds put together, but it was hard, drab, and wholly uninviting. Even with such a large bed, the room was still quite spacious, probably owing to the fact that there was nothing there in the way of decoration. Everything there was to serve a purpose; the bed was for sleeping, the wardrobe contained the clothes, and the small end table held the candles. There was no color in the room except for the dark brown of the wooden floorboards, wardrobe, end table, headboard, and double doors leading out of the room, and the charcoal gray of the stone walls on every side, the three barely-used candles, and the thick quilt covering her. All in all, it was a no-nonsense room, there was no question about it.

With a shock, she realized that it must belong to that dark, mysterious man. She began to blush. She had never been in a man's bed before. How did she get here, and where was that man?

Oh yes, it was the man who saved her in a tavern, and went with her to save her f… Suddenly everything that happened came rushing back to her memory, and she was no longer blushing innocently. Her father! Her father was dead! Killed by a pack of wolves! With an uncontained sob as her grief hit her full force for the first time, she fell back onto the bed, buried her face in a pillow, and wept. She was uncaring as she gave her tears to stain a pillow that was not hers, and in return the pillow gave her an unfamiliar but not uncomforting scent to wrap around her.

It took her almost two hours to regain herself. She had cried out most of the initial shock, disbelief, and anger, and the remaining grief she wrestled down into her heart, to be there for her to come to terms with in her own time. Her eyes were red and puffy and she was drained, physically and emotionally, when she dragged herself out of the bed. Immediately, without the heavy quilt over her, she became fully aware of the coldness of the chamber. Quickly she slipped into her shoes, which had been placed neatly next to the bed, and opened the door.

A long, straight hall stretched before her, with many doors on either side. She thought she should try to find that man, or at least some other person who lived here, to thank him for his kindness and be on her way. She did not want to impose, especially not after… recent events, and definitely not on some stranger whom she had barely met.

"Excuse me," she called out timidly as she went from door to door, breath condensing into visible puffs with each word, knocking respectfully before opening them to look inside. She found a few bedrooms, many more unfurnished rooms, and even a large study of sorts with an imposing wooden desk and shelves lined floor to ceiling with books, but every room was cold and empty.

When she reached the end of the hall, she saw a grand, curving staircase leading downward and realized that she was on the second floor of this house. She took the steps down and continued her exploration.

The first door she came to led into the kitchen. There was a large, brick oven, a place for washing dishes, and stacked pots and pans of various sizes. But the oven was filled with cobwebs and cold ash, and looked as if it hadn't been used in ages.

Even the stately dining table in the next room, although it was set with beautiful china and silver utensils, had a thick layer of dust on it. The vase in the middle held a number of dry, thorny sticks which must have been roses at some point, and the candles on either side of it looked frozen through.

The unease that had been growing in her was suffocating as it bore down on her now. If the kitchen of a house had no activity, and the table of a house had no warmth, then that house had no life. And from the webs and dust and heavy, still air, she knew that there had not been life in this house for years and years. She shuddered.

Maybe she should just leave now. It was a cold, empty house, a dead house, and no one would be there to miss her when she left. There was no sign of that man either, although she assumed that he must have been the one to bring her here.

As she moved toward the main doors of the house that she now knew was once a sprawling castle, she noticed one last door to her right. Through the wood of the door, she thought she heard perturbations of the air inside. A little bit curious and a great deal afraid, she nudged the door open and let out a little gasp.

It was a roaring fire in a stone fireplace, its orange glow and comforting warmth radiating from it to fill the room. Before it laid the skin of a great bear, and on top of that was a long, cushioned couch. More shelves filled with books, big and small, lined the walls of what must have been the sitting room of the castle.

This room, apparently, was inhabited, though it, too, was empty at the moment.

But the fire was too strong of a draw to the chilled, slightly agitated girl, who stepped into the room without preamble and closed the door behind her. She settled herself down on the fur in front of the fire, as close to it as she could stand, and, closing her eyes, allowed its warmth to seep through her clothes and into her body.

*****

In the morning light, as the sun struggled to climb over the jagged, snowy peaks to the east, he ran lightly over the snow. He was looking for news on the events of last night, the killing of a human on his lands by his subjects. But despite the disconcerting nature of the investigation, and the impermissible undermining of his authority, joy surged within him to the beat of his thundering heart with every bound he took. He had made a good kill just a short while ago; a fawn. It was hard to find any decent-sized prey in the middle of the winter, and its mother had been extraordinarily and satisfyingly protective.

But she was no match for him. Now, with a full stomach inside him and a beautiful sunrise playing out above him, he sprinted like a wild animal to the far corners of his territory, drawing the sweet, crisp morning air deep into his lungs as he went. He could no longer sense the aggression or the presence of the ones who had disobeyed him last night, but since he had not roamed his lands last night, he wanted to seek out those who were loyal to him to hear news of the latest happenings in his land.

All day he ran and called them out to him, and they answered with howls before they, too, came running to him. They told him of intruders in his territory, newcomers from faraway lands, who were wild and feral and listened not to reason. The wild ones refused to acknowledge them and had only one leader, they said, though not one of them had actually seen this new wolf with their own eyes. His pack had come with no warning, and it was likely that they were here to challenge his authority, to defeat him.

He listened to their accounts grimly before he thanked them and turned back toward his castle. The day was winding to a close.

As he ran, he pondered the recent developments in his mind. _Strangers, intruders, in his land; They attacked that girl and her father, and killed him; She had just managed to escape, it seemed; There was a dominant wolf among them who wanted to challenge him; Who was the challenger? Could it be that his destiny was finally in motion?_

When he arrived at his home, the sky was already inky dark. Remembering the girl he had left inside, he thoughtfully took on his human form before entering through the great wooden doors. He went upstairs to the bedroom that he hardly used anymore, but she was not in his bed where he had left her. She had left the room without permission, and had probably wandered around his house while he was gone. Where had she gone? What had she seen?

Annoyed, he made his way to the sitting room, his sanctuary. When he was in his house, he spent almost all of his time in there and, even when he wasn't, kept the fire burning through all hours of the day and night.

He wanted to sit down on the couch, but when he walked in front of it, he was surprised to find the girl lying asleep on her side along the length of it. Her head was pillowed on one arm, and there were tears on her long, curved lashes.

That caught him slightly off guard. He had not expected her to be here, in his room – for he considered this to be his room even more than that old bedroom upstairs – lying without permission on the couch that was his favorite for reclining on.

He shook her shoulder with his hand to wake her.

She flinched at the touch, and was wide awake in a moment. Gasping at the sight of a man leaning over her, she quickly sat up and drew as far away from his as the couch's arm would allow. She blinked a few times before realizing that this was the man whom she had been searching for all day, the person whom she needed to thank. Relieved that he hadn't just disappeared completely, she began, "You were the one who brought me here, weren't you? My name is Relena. Thank you very much for taking---"

"What are you doing here?" he cut her off brusquely in a cold, emotionless voice.

She blinked again in surprise and disbelief. "Excuse me?"

"Who gave you permission to be in this room?"

"No one, _sir_," she countered back, a rising anger bringing a bite of sarcasm to her voice, "I came here on my own."

"Then you have no reason to be here."

She was speechless for a few seconds before she became fully angry. "You mean to say that I should have stayed in that freezing bedroom upstairs indefinitely?"

"Yes."

"There is a fire here, and it's actually warm for a change."

"You're trespassing."

"I was looking for you. Or somebody. Anybody to talk to. To _thank_." This man, with his curt, rude responses, was infuriating beyond words. "Besides, you were the one who brought me here, were you not?"

"Would you rather I left you out there after you fainted?"

Now he offends her! "Well, excuse me for seeing my father die in my arms! Maybe you should have left me out there, if you only brought me here to have somebody to argue with."

"You would have frozen to death. Or worse."

"It would be better than being confined to that room and arguing with you like this when I woke."

"You would do well to mind your manners when you speak to the master of this house."

"And you, sir, would do well to mind _your_ manners when you speak to a lady whom you brought into your house. You haven't even so much as told me your name."

He did not respond, just glared at her with a surprisingly frightening chill in his eyes. No one had ever dared to speak to him like that.

"Fine. I know when I'm not wanted. I was about to leave anyways, after I had found the person who saved me and thanked him." She stood up and faced him fearlessly. "Again, kind sir, I thank you." She may have been very angry, but she was still a lady. "And now I will take my leave." She started to head for the door.

He gripped her arm tightly. "You're not allowed to leave this house." Then he himself began to stride to the door. "There's nowhere for you to go. There are no towns nearby, and it is night. Do not go courting a repeat of last night's events." He had reached the door, and he turned back to address her one last time. "It's Heero." The door slammed with finality and then he was gone.

She was dismissed so discourteously that it made her eyes sting with tears of outrage. How dare he order her about, confine her, and speak of the circumstances of her father's death so carelessly?

Breathing hard with the exertion of holding a fresh wave tears back, she knew that she really could not stand to stay here any longer than absolutely necessary. She would rather take her chances with those wolves. Suddenly a great pang of hunger struck her, and she realized that she hadn't eaten since yesterday morning. She had no choice. She decided that she would rest here for a few hours, in front of the fire, savoring its warmth for the last time and gathering her strength again, before making her way for the town that she and her father had been traveling to yesterday.


	3. The First Day of her New Life

Chapter 3. The First Day of her New Life

Heero had retreated to the bedroom at the end of the long hall upstairs. It was the one he had used before the curse, when he was still human, but since then he was usually content to just hunker down before the great fireplace in his wolf form. He hardly ever took his human form anymore; He only did it once in a while, when he felt like going to that tavern for some brew and to hear some gossip from the human world. Like last night.

Getting back into that bed felt strange, especially when he could smell that girl's scent in it. And one pillow was slightly damp. She had been crying, he realized.

He knew he needed to try to get some rest. But Heero, still riled up from their argument hours ago, was unable to sleep. Restless and needing to run, he decided that it would be a good idea to go out on a hunt. It was his normal mealtime anyways, and if he could kill that doe or something larger like that, then they would both have enough for a satisfying feast today. After all, he realized, he was that girl's sole provider of food now that he had expressly forbidden her to leave of her own accord. And at any rate, there was no way that she could make the one-day walk to the nearest town while moving at a human's rate. He had no servants living with him – a fact that she had already discovered yesterday – to make the trip for them or even to cook the game that he took down. When he took on his wolf form, he had no need for cooking; It was far more enjoyable to rip the raw meat from his still-warm kill and to feel the hot blood stain his muzzle.

In the pre-dawn minutes, as the sky was taking on an ashen hue again, Heero changed into his wolf form and slipped silently out of his house. There was a gentle flurry going today.

As a wolf, all of his senses were sharpened many times over. The moment he set foot outside, his nose detected the smell of that girl faintly lingering in the snow. _She really had left the house!_ He realized. That meant she was somewhere out there, and suddenly he was compelled by the obligation to find her. He had promised the old man who had seen through him; and even if he hadn't, the one shred of humanity left within him would not allow him to abandon a person whom he had the power to save.

He took a few seconds to howl into the air, calling on his subjects for help in the search, and then he was off.

The tracking was proving difficult. She must have passed through here hours ago. And the newly fallen snow covered up her footprints and diluted the scent trail. He knew he didn't have much time. It was impossible for a strong human to survive for very long in this weather, and she did not look like a sturdy one at all. He had to find her soon.

Occasionally, he would lose the faintly lingering scent completely, but as a whole it was becoming stronger and stronger. And two wolves that were in the area and heard his command joined him along the way. Trudging on even when there was no clear direction, they followed the trail at a brisk pace for many minutes before they finally found her.

The girl was lying curled up on her side in the snow, which was already starting to pile up on her. Was he too late? Heero bounded to her side to look at her face. It was completely colorless, he saw, except for her lips, which were an alarming shade of blue. He lowered his nose to her face and felt the smallest breath escaping from those parted blue lips. Immediately, he knew that there was still time, but only if he acted now.

He lay down beside her, as close to her body as he could, and tried to maneuver his head under her arm. The other two wolves pushed from the other side, and the three of them, by working together, managed to roll her onto Heero's back.

And then they ran back to the mansion, one on either side to keep her from slipping off. At the door Heero gave them a quick nod of thanks before they left, before he went to care for her alone.

He carried her into the sitting room and set her down on the fur in front of the fire, making sure to straighten her arms and legs to promote circulation. He pulled off her shoes again, though it was much more difficult this time since he didn't have the use of his hands, and settled himself down onto her feet to fight off frostbite and speed up their warming. With her toes buried in the soft, hot fur of his belly, his body was still long enough to cover her legs, and his head just reached her hips. Settling himself to stay in that position for a few minutes, he put his head down to rest on her hips. More contact meant more heat for her. But immediately he found that, again, her scent was beneath him and around him, warm and comforting and inviting and made even more intense by the sensitivity of his wolf's nose. The scent of woman.

He pushed that thought out of his head. He was here to give her his warmth.

Peering up at her without lifting his head, he saw from her rhythmically rising chest that she was slowly beginning to take deeper, stronger breaths as the warmth from the fire and his body enveloped her.

Many minutes later and finally satisfied that she was recovering well, he remembered his original plan of going hunting that morning. Now it had been two whole days since she had last eaten, and if she were to make the rest of her recovery a speedy one, she had to have something to eat the moment she woke up. He was still uneasy at the idea of leaving her alone while she was still so very fragile, but he had to do this for her. He got up from her legs and went on his hunt, determined to make it back before she would even begin to stir again.

Twenty minutes later he was back, a dead hare in his teeth. It was the only thing he could find that wouldn't take too long to catch, kill, and bring back, not to mention clean and cook. The girl was no wolf, and she couldn't eat raw meat, so Heero knew that he would have to find a way to get this hare cooked for her. He had been thinking about how to do it all the way home, as the hare hung limp and bleeding from his jaws, and he thought he had an idea now.

He left the hare just outside the door and went inside. First he poked his head into the room to check on the girl, who was still lying still. Then, he padded into the kitchen and curled his lips in wolfish disgust at the different dusty pots until he saw one that he thought was a good size for what he had in mind. He picked it up with his teeth, along with a suitable spoon, and brought them outside to where the dead hare was waiting. Here, he set the pot down, put the spoon in, and began to work.

_First things first, this pot and spoon need washing_. He bit a mouthful of snow and held it in his mouth until it melted. He opened his mouth over the pot and the icy water fell into the pot. Then he picked it up with his teeth and swirled the water around as well as he could before setting it down again and tipped it over with his paw to let out the dusty water. He did this two more times, until he was satisfied that it was clean.

_Now for you,_ he thought as he turned to the hare. It was messy work, since he only had his teeth and claws. Moreover, he never had to do this before, so it wasn't as if he had any experience. But he managed to bite off the head and skin the animal, and even to clean out its organs. He placed the hare, now finally fit for cooking, into the washed pot.

He started to bring the pot inside, when an idea came unexpectedly to him. He looked around him, and luckily found some edible plants nearby, next to the house where the warmth from the fireplace seeped out and kept a small strip of dirt free of snow. These he ripped of just above the roots, and then they, too, were dropped into the pot.

Then he proceeded to dump snow into the pot. Today he was making stew.

Finally, he carried his pot of herb and hare and snow into the house, all the while feeling rather proud of his own resourcefulness and handiwork. He singed his nose a little bit when he put the pot in the fire on the wooden logs, but he didn't mind. He just moved so that he was on the other side of the girl, where the fire couldn't warm her, and lay down. Color had returned to her cheeks again, and it looked like she was sleeping now. Finally, with everything in place, he allowed himself to lay his head on his paws and rest.

Heero only realized he had dozed off when he was woken by the feeling of fingers in his fur. The girl was still asleep, but she had moved onto her side so that her back now faced the fire. An arm reached over to him, and its fingers alternately tangled and smoothed out a small clump of fur where his neck met his shoulders.

He had never had his fur stroked before. What an odd but not unpleasant sensation! He closed his eyes again, so that he could concentrate on the feeling. He could come to enjoy this, he decided.

Suddenly, the fingers stopped their soothing motions in his fur.

Just as he was about to open his eyes to see why they had stopped, he heard a strangled scream beside him. On instinct, he jumped up into a defensive stance, ears pricked forward and alert for any sign of danger.

Immediately, though, he realized what had happened. The girl had just woken up to find a very large wolf next to her, and reacted as any other human – any other human who had been attacked by wolves not two days ago – would have.

He turned around and found her hiding behind an armchair across the room. She looked at him over its padded back, fear clearly showing in her eyes and in the way her fingers gripped the fabric. He heard her inhale sharply when he made eye contact with her, and knew that she was planning the best way to run from the room without being caught and killed.

Heero decided to show her that he wasn't going to hurt her in the only way he knew how. He sat down on his haunches, and then he lowered himself completely so that even his head was on the ground. And he just looked at her, trying to communicate to her with his eyes.

The girl stayed behind the chair for many minutes and trembled while the wolf in front of her stayed still, listening to her rapid, shallow, frantic breathing. If it had wanted to attack her, it would have done so by now, she told herself. But what was a wild animal doing in that man's house? And such a large one at that. Could this wolf be a pet of that man, Heero?

Gingerly, she stepped out from behind the chair, and took a few uncertain steps forward. She still looked like she was ready to bolt at the smallest movement from him, so Heero made sure to stay absolutely still. _No flicking of the ears, no twitching of the tail, and definitely no licking of the muzzle._

Slowly, from her posture and her breathing, he could sense her fear leaving her. Now it was time to act, but he must not make the wrong movement. The next thing he did would be crucial for building or breaking her trust.

He broke their eye contact so that she would not think he was about to come after her. He lowered his eyes to a random point on the fur rug beneath him and slowly sat back up. Immediately, she tensed again; but she did not run behind the chair.

Then, carefully, he looked at her again. He heard her intake of breath, but she stayed where she was. _Not bad, there is some courage in her._

He turned his head to point at the fire, and then he looked back at her, but she did not follow his indication. Either she hadn't caught on, or she had but just refused to take her eyes off of him.

He reminded himself to be patient with the human girl, and tried again. This time, he stood up on all fours, though he made sure to turn his body so that he wasn't facing her. He walked over to the fire and nodded at it, pointing to the pot with his nose. Then he walked a few paces away from it, so that he was back against the sofa, and sat down again, curling his tail so that it wrapped around his front paws. It was a habit of his.

With the wolf itself putting some distance between them, Relena was now relatively certain that it wasn't interested in her for its dinner. She decided it would be safe to take her eyes off of it, and looked at the fire where it had seemed to be "pointing."

She was surprised to find a pot of stew boiling on the logs, and it was then that she realized that the smell of cooking was all throughout the room. She also realized how weak and how hungry she really was. Suddenly, right at that moment, the single most important thing in that room was the food, not the wolf.

In order to be able to eat the stew, she needed to get it off of the fire first. She looked around for something which would allow her to handle the hot metal but found nothing. Then she looked like she had an idea. She looked down at her skirt, then over at the wolf with an almost sheepish expression on her face.

"Wait, what am I doing," she whispered to herself, "It's not like that wolf over there can understand what is and isn't 'ladylike'." With that, she bunched up as much of her skirt as she could in her hands and used it as insulation to grab the pot from the fire.

With the pot now free from the fire and safely on the ground, ready to be eaten from, she was rather proud of her own resourcefulness. She was about to start eating when she heard the wolf panting a distance to her side. She looked over at it, and saw that it was staring right at her with its mouth open and his tongue hanging out as it panted. It was almost as if it were laughing at her.

By now, she was sure that she felt no threat from it, so she just cocked an eyebrow at it suspiciously. "Strange wolf… must be his pet," she thought out loud. In response, the wolf got up again and walked to the side of the fireplace, where a spoon was lying on the ground. He pushed it over to her with his nose, since he was pretty sure she didn't want to use a spoon covered with saliva, and then moved a respectful distance away again.

Relena's eyes lit up at the spoon that the wolf brought over. It _looked_ clean, she thought as she picked it up, but she wiped it on a corner of her skirt for good measure.

Then she looked at the wolf a short distance away, back to the stew in front of her, then back to the wolf again.

Heero watched from his seat next to the sofa as the girl picked up the pot again with her skirt between her hand and the metal, and was struck again with amusement. Of her own accord, she moved nearer until she was close enough to touch him if she reached out, but she was still was sure to leave some space between them. Then she sat down, leaning her back against the sofa behind them.

She lifted out the hare with the spoon and broke off both of its muscular hind legs. She held them out to him on her hand, clearly offering him part of her meal even though she was so hungry herself.

"Here, Wolf," she said, "You must be that man's pet, and you don't look like you want to eat me, so I'll trust you." She looked into his eyes and frowned a little. "I know you don't understand me, but you look hungry. I don't know how this got here, but it smells quite good, so I want you to have some. Go ahead, take it."

Heero was surprised. She was offering half of her already modest meal to him, even though she must have been famished herself. But he had to admit, he was hungry too; He had also missed his meal this morning.

She looked like she could use all the food she could get, but he could not bring himself to refuse her kindness. Tonight, he decided, he would hunt her something big and filling. He seemed to nod a little, and carefully took the small chunks of meat from her hand. He watched her face as he did, and saw her hold her breath as his sharp teeth came close to her hand, but she did not shrink from him. When he had taken both pieces of meat, he gently licked her hand in gratitude, sweeping his tongue across her palm and pressing it between her fingers to lick up the juices.

She smiled at that, and then she turned to her own food.

They ate together, sitting side by side, on the bear's fur rug in front of the roaring fire.


	4. Wolf

Chapter 4. Wolf

By the time Relena had finished dinner, her fear of the wolf beside her was long gone. It was more like a big dog, really, the way it sat with her companionably while she ate. If it wanted to do anything to her, it would have long ago, and she honestly did not feel a single thread of malice from the creature. Plus, she was aching for a friend right now.

With the empty pot set aside now and nothing to do for the moment, Relena resigned herself to spending another night alone in the prison-mansion. She sat there for many minutes, hugging her knees to her chest and gazing with unfocused eyes into the fire, while the wolf settled itself comfortably beside her on the rug. It leisurely stretched out to its full length, which could still be alarmingly long, but it did not put its head down; it preferred to stay alert and aware.

Finally, something broke inside her and all the physical and emotional weariness she had been fighting back started to grab at her heart.

Heero saw her breathe a shaky and audible breath. Then she turned to him. The pain was written clearly on her face.

"Wolf, where is your master? Will he come again tonight to tell me that I'm not wanted here?" she gave a little chuckle that carried a slight hint of bitterness. "I remember trying to leave, but somehow I am here again. Your master will be very angry when he finds out. Perhaps he will glare at me and reprimand me again."

Her words had an almost physical impact on Heero. He felt like he had been struck by the anguish that he caused her as if it were a mallet, and he was stunned.

She paused briefly, and when she spoke again, she had abruptly changed her tone.

"I miss him, Wolf… My father." She hugged her knees a little bit tighter. "He died two days ago. He was killed by…" her sentence trailed off as she darted a quick glance at her silent companion. "He was killed.

"We were on our way to the next town. We were moving because father wanted to try to make a better life for us. It was hard to farm our little plot of land, and we didn't have much money—" Her voice broke a little, but she continued on. "Mother died seven years ago, when I was eight years old. Ever since then it was just the two of us, but we were all each other needed.

"We grew cabbage, carrots, radishes – things like that – and I helped father with the sowing and harvesting. At the end of every week, I would gather the crops and sell them in the market, and with the money from that I would buy the week's bread. It was a simple life, and sometimes I caught myself wondering if there would ever be anything more to life than this. But then I would look at Father and think how much I love him, and how happy we were, and I would be ashamed that I ever wanted anything more.

"And now he's not here anymore, and I'm all alone. I don't know what to do, and I have nowhere to go." She dropped her forehead to her arms that were folded atop her knees and her hair fell forward, hiding her face. "I'm scared," he heard her whisper faintly to herself.

Heero wanted to see if she was crying again, so he nudged her arm with his nose. At the contact, she looked up from the cradle of her arms and met his eyes. Her own eyes were moist, but she was not crying. She drew a deep, steadying breath. "No, I guess I'm not alone, because you're here with me." There was an unreadable expression in her eyes again. She reached out tentatively.

Heero tensed in anticipation of the unfamiliar contact again, but he did not move away. Taking that as permission from the animal, Relena placed her hand gently on the top of its head and gave it a few timid pets. Despite his better judgment, Heero found himself leaning just slightly into the touch. It must have been his canine instincts, he told himself, craving the contact.

"Thank you, Wolf. Thanks for listening to me talk, even though I know you don't understand a single word I'm saying. I feel a little better, just by talking about things." Unexpectedly, she was struck by the sense of a great intelligence within the beast that had been keeping her company this whole time. She stopped and looked deeply into its dark blue eyes, eyes that seemed to draw her in.

"Wolf, I've never seen an animal with eyes like yours. And your coat is dark brown, not grey like the others of your kind that I've seen." She cocked her head slightly to the side. "You're very unusual, aren't you?"

Suddenly, she remembered.

"Oh! There is another strange wolf too. I saw it two days ago." She thought out loud, more to herself than to the beast. Her eyes became distant as she tried to recall that hypnotic moment. "It was a great beast… golden… almost white. It didn't attack us, but rather it just sat there a distance away. And it had blue eyes, just like you… endlessly blue…" Her eyes lit up. "Could it be that maybe you two are related?" she pondered out loud with a little bit of amusement.

Heero flinched mentally at that description. The intruder in his lands that the other wolves had reported to him! And though he had been suspecting it all along, with nothing to base it on except an instinctual feeling, that was the moment that he knew, with absolute certainty, just who had come to challenge him. The white-gold wolf was not unfamiliar to him; their lives had crossed a long, long time ago. And now their lives are about to cross again, just as the witch had foretold… just as the witch had cursed.

Abruptly he jumped to his feet, his hackles raised and lips beginning to curl back in growl. Beside him, Relena tensed at the sudden motion, her eyes widening in awe and no small amount of fear at the raw, wild power the beast was emanating.

Without even a parting glance at the girl, Heero stalked darkly out of the room. He had things to take care of.

Relena looked after the retreating four-footed figure. She could feel its tension, but its actions still confused her. Soon, she was alone in the room again. Truly alone. With a sigh, she moved onto the sofa to settle in for the night.

Heero was running through the powdery snow again. Whenever he was agitated, he felt the urge to run, to sprint, to eat up the ground with a pounding pace until his paws barely touched the ground and it felt like he was flying.

And he was more agitated now than he could remember being in a very long time. Nothing had riled him up like this, not since _that_ incident.

"_You refuse to help an old woman? Very well then. If you will not fight him, then you will join him. I curse you into his form until the day you face your destiny and defeat your rival in combat. Until that time, you will never feel the warmth of the sun on your skin again. Until you can face yourself and your responsibility, you are no man, and the waking world will see you as such."_

He shook his head clear of the memories that still haunted him. He had not forgotten the more pressing issue at hand, his mental promise to the girl and himself. He had spent a good part of the night keeping that girl company, and he needed to finish the task before daybreak if he wanted to utilize the knife-using ability of his human hands.

Tonight he would get that doe.

*****

He caught her scent quickly. She was out foraging tonight, and she had passed through here not too long ago.

Soon he tracked her down. He could see her in front of him, just beyond the tangled tree branches. She was picking at a few blades of grass, and she had not sensed him yet.

He crept closer on silent paws. He was close now. So close. He could almost taste her.

That was when she tensed. She raised her head, ears swiveling this way and that, nostrils flaring to catch the scent of a predator that she could feel nearby.

It was now or never.

The doe took a few uncertain steps. She was about to bolt.

_Now! Do it!_

He bounded out from the shadows and snapped at the doe's hindquarters. His teeth just grazed her, but she had leapt out of the way at the last moment.

_Shit!_ He cursed mentally as the doe tore down the path. Now he had to chase. It wouldn't matter in the end though, because he always caught his prey. But it was a minor inconvenience.

His canine instincts sang as he chased her. She ran from him in zig zags, trying to shake him by taking an unpredictable path. Her twig-thin legs allowed her to jump daintily out of deep piles of snow, and she had the frantic speed of a creature that was running for her life, but he still gained on her.

With a final burst of power he pulled alongside her and jumped for her throat. They both went tumbling in the snow from the force of the impact. Rolled onto her back, the doe kicked her spindly legs jerkily in the air, but it was already too late. Heero lay beside her on the snow that was already being stained red with hot blood, his jaws clamped tightly around her neck. His sharp teeth had pierced her windpipe, and she was suffocating. Her blood seeped out from the bite wounds and into his mouth. He looked on emotionlessly as she spasmed in her death throes beneath him. Briefly an image flashed in his mind of her young fawn, the one that he had killed early that morning. He, too, had jerked and spasmed in his jaws like this. Then, unexpectedly, the image in his mind's eye was replaced by that of the girl hugging her knees in front of the fire, talking to him as if he were an old friend.

The doe stilled. Its large, watery eyes lost its franticness and dulled. And Heero began the long work of dragging its body back to the house.

He reached it, prize in tow, just as the stars were beginning to dim in the sky. It looked like he still had time tonight.

He changed into his human form and went to find a knife in the kitchen.

It always felt strange to make the transformation. Since he spent almost all of his time as a wolf, it was the form that he felt much more comfortable in. Before this, the last time he had changed was over a month ago. Now, because of that girl who suddenly came into his life, he had changed three times in three days. She turned his life upside down just by appearing, and he didn't like it one bit.

He cleaned the carcass and cut it up. He chose the tender meat of the torso for the first meal. The tougher muscles of the shoulders and flanks could stand up better to being frozen and thawed for cooking tomorrow. He buried the unused parts of the doe in the snow, where he knew it would still be waiting for him tomorrow, and proceeded to make two dishes this time. With human hands to work with this time, it was much easier to make another, larger pot of stew. And he prepared some of the fattier cuts of meat for frying in a skillet as well. That, he thought with anticipation, would make for a satisfying meal.

The sky was growing lighter by the second.

When he brought the food to the fire for cooking, he saw the girl sleeping soundly on his sofa. It was strange being in her vicinity as a human again, since the last time they were together like this they had argued until he stormed out.

Quickly he arranged the food over the fire, thankful that he did not have to burn his nose this time around. Then he turned to observe her some more. She hadn't stirred this entire time, even though he had been moving around just a few feet away from her.

He bent to look at her more closely. She was such a deep sleeper. He examined her features carefully. He noted the clear but still pale skin, the small, high nose, and the lips that were slightly chapped from the alternating cold and heat she had experienced that day. He looked at her closed eyes, and imagined their blueness. Although he remembered looking into them while he was a wolf, he longed to see them again as a human. Their color was the same as his, but they were so different at the same time. The blue was lighter, like the sky on a sunny day, and they shined with innocence.

He had lost his own so long ago...

It was then that he felt the heat stirring in his chest, starting from his heart and radiating outward. The sun must have been rising outside. Usually he had no real reason to stay human and changed himself back of his own accord long before his time limit was up. This time, he had wanted to grasp every last second of his time as a human, just because he had been studying her face while she was sleeping. He had almost forgotten it, but now he was reminded again of the pain that comes with a forced transformation. Without the mental preparation, the usual discomfort was magnified into fiery pain by the arriving rays of the sun, so that he fell to the ground gasping.

Relena felt the air in the room changing somehow. Through the dense fog of dreamless sleep, she imagined hearing gasps and muted grunts.

She willed herself awake. What she saw in the room was nothing out of the ordinary. The fire was burning, and there was food cooking in it again. And lying on the fur rug before her was the form of a wolf, with his head down and his eyes closed and his breathing slightly quickened.


	5. A Walk in the Snow

Chapter 5. A Walk in the Snow

"Look, Wolf, there's breakfast again today!" Relena exclaimed, as she promptly slid off the couch to tend to the cooking food. "I wonder who left it here. But my, it does look delicious," she said softly, with a small smile.

Heero felt a surge of pride.

She used the same unladylike skirt trick to take the skillet from the fire, but when it had cooled enough she took the largest piece and offered it to him in the palm of her hand once again.

Why did she always insist having him eat first?

When he hesitated to take the meat she held it forward insistently and smiled warmly at him. "Here you go, Wolf. Your share of breakfast."

He regarded her for a second, then took the meat and lapped gently at her hand.

She ate a piece after that, but she gave the remainder of the meat in the skillet to him. She seemed to prefer the stew, as she went for that instead, and Heero was content because things worked out better like that anyway. He was on a strictly meat diet, no liquids except water required.

Heero cocked his head at her when she stopped eating the stew and set it down near the fire. She noticed his look and it was like he had asked her the question out loud. "Saving the rest for dinner," she answered him, with a bright smile.

Ah yes. Heero remembered now that humans liked their meals in small portions several times a day.

"How many days has it been," said Relena, as they sat enjoying each other's company after both had finished eating, "It feels like I've been here forever, but it feels like I've been here only an instant.

"Other than you, Wolf, there's no one to talk to. Even the voice of your surly master would be good to hear right now." Heero gave her an apologetic look. "I wonder where he is right now, and where he's been all these days. Do you know where he spends his days, now that I've displaced him from his favorite room?"

The wolf just blinked at her.

"What a silly question," she quickly laughed. "How could you possibly know? You've been here with me this whole time." The great wolf gave her a wolfish grin.

Relena's expression turned thoughtful. "But I do feel a bit stifled perpetually staying in this room. Do you think your surly master would disapprove if I walked about the grounds for a bit?"

So he was "the surly master" now?

Heero rose from his reclining position on the rug. He padded silently to a corner of the room and came back with a heavy cloak in his jaws, which he dropped in her lap. Then he began to head toward the door. When Relena did not move to follow him, he stopped in his path and turned back to look at her. _What are you waiting for?_

Relena snapped to attention as she realized that the wolf was taking her outside. She looked down at the cloak he had brought her. It was crafted from a rich, black velvet, and lined with another dark red layer for warmth. It looked very old, but it was clearly made with skill and quality.

As she stood and threw it over her shoulders, a familiar scent enveloped her for a moment. It took her a second to realize that it was the same scent as the one on the bed that she woke up in that first day, and she blushed a bit to know that she was wearing that man's clothing.

The first step outside brought a refreshing gust of clear winter air to her face. Relena closed her eyes, opened her arms, and threw her head back to take a deep breath. She exhaled deeply too, as if releasing some kind of emotion. The wolf stood nearby, watching her reaction. When she opened her eyes, they were clear and bright and filled with happiness. With a laugh she launched herself sprinting out onto the snowy landscape. Heero followed right behind her, keeping pace effortlessly. His tongue lolled out to the side in a canine pant-laugh. To him, it always felt good to run, but damn! the joy of that girl was infectious.

He stayed by her side as she strolled about, sometimes running here or there when something caught her eye. A maroon finch in the trees. An early indigo bloom. The chill of the air was bringing a pretty flush to her cheeks and her lips were full and red. She was wonderment and innocence and life personified.

Together they wandered deeper into the woods. Heero permitted her to walk this far from the house because was secure in the knowledge that this was still his intimate, personal territory… until the sun passed behind some clouds and the air suddenly changed.

Relena, too, felt the change. She stopped and scanned around, uneasiness suddenly gripping her. Danger was near.

Heero's wolf senses told him much more information. Unfamiliar wolves were approaching, members from the trespassing pack. The smells and the sounds of three individuals, coming from directly ahead. They were running noisily, not bothering to mask their presence. An open attack. And a blatant challenge.

Heero moved protectively in front of Relena, placing himself squarely between her and the fast-approaching threat. His hackles rose in anger, and he bared his teeth, a growl coming out low and loud.

An instant later, three large, gray wolves burst into view. The wicked, brazen gleam in their yellow eyes proclaimed that they called another wolf master. Heero took a steady step forward, unafraid even though the odds were stacked heavily against him.

Relena was frozen in place. The stillness of the four wolves before her belied the almost palpable tension that was in the air. The mind-numbing fear that she had experienced only once before was back as she looked into the eyes of the same wolves that had killed her father.

Time stopped for a heartbeat as the wolves faced off. Then, the silent signal rang out, and the four wolves launched themselves at each other.

Relena thought the ground beneath her trembled as the wolves crashed together.

Each snap of their jaws was like a clap of thunder; their furious snarls sounded like avalanches of rocks and brought shivers up her spine as she watched the fight helplessly.

They leapt at each other, striking out with their heavy paws and darting out of the way and lashing out at each other with glinting teeth. The four were connected in a tangle of legs, and together they formed a flurry of fur that was constantly shifting and writhing as three tried to overpower one.

The brown-black wolf, _her_ wolf, fought like a possessed demon, absorbing hits to his body without flinching and giving back just as good as he got.

A direct hit on the head of one of the gray wolves brought out a high pitched cry of pain and sent it rolling to the side of the fighting mass. His face was slashed open and he did not rise again.

Then the wolf had one of the remaining two by the throat. The one in his jaws rolled his eyes so that the whites showed on the side of the iris and clawed at the one who held him. The other wolf, taking advantage of his preoccupation, leapt onto his back and tore open his shoulder. Relena felt her blood go cold.

Heero snarled in pain, in the process releasing the one who he had by the throat. The wolf fell to the ground bleeding but managed a snap at his front legs, biting through skin and muscles clear down to the bone.

Their combined efforts brought her wolf down. The next moment, Relena was aware that she was charging at the wolves, a hefty branch in her hands. She did not remember getting one, but when she reached the wolves she swung it with all of the desperate strength in her body at the wolf on Heero's back. The branch connected with its temple and sent it reeling as it broke in half.

It took only a second to right itself, though, and once it had it whirled around to fix its wild gaze on hers. Relena dropped the broken and now useless branch and took a step backward.

Knowing that the other wolf was now trained on Relena, Heero had to end this quickly. He clamped his jaws down on the wolf's throat again and with a jerk of his head ripped open his windpipe. The wolf collapsed onto the snow, breathing with a wet, wheezing sound as its blood seeped out of the bite to stain the whiteness.

He turned to the last wolf and saw Relena letting go of the branch that could not help her anymore. He saw the wolf facing her, and suddenly he was livid.

Relena saw the wolf before her coil itself for a spring and then it was in the air coming straight at her. In that same instant, the brown-black wolf met it in mid air like a bullet. The force of the strike sent them both tumbling to the ground. Before they could skid to a stop teeth were flashing again. They struggled on the ground together, both too injured to stand. A bite here, a swipe there, as they rolled about, each trying to end up on top of the other.

The brown-black wolf was larger, though, and was able to stay on top longer and longer as the smaller gray wolf grew weaker and weaker. He found himself constantly on his back, and knew that that would be how he had to make his move. When he saw that the front leg was exposed, he took the opening.

Except it was not an opening; it was a trap. When he latched on, it exposed the side of his neck to the wolf above him. Their eyes met for a split second, wild yellow and steely blue, and then the jaw came down over his neck and with a crunch, the spine was severed.

Relena heard a sickening crunch and then the scene fell silent. Both wolves went absolutely still. She was scared to move. She was scared to even breathe.

An eternity later, the brown-black wolf, her wolf, rose slowly and laboriously to his feet. She could see him panting shallowly as he looked down at his defeated opponent one last time, and then he turned to her. Teary blue eyes met darkening blue eyes.

_She was crying… for me?_

He began to make his way back to her, stumbling on mangled legs and dripping blood from every wound on his body onto the snow with each step.

She ran forward and met him halfway. When she reached him he gave a deep sigh and dropped himself onto the snow as if the last of his strength had given out right then.

Up close his wounds were truly horrible to behold. The great wound on his left shoulder bore the shape of teeth at the edges, and there were smaller scratches covering his ribs and flank. Both of his front legs were chewed and she could not fathom how they ever held his weight a second ago.

She started to rip strips from the hem of her dress.

"Wolf!" she cried, but it came out no louder than a breath. "Please don't die!!" She sank down next to him as she started to wrap his front legs and shoulder. "We have to get back home…" She never stopped calling to him while she worked. By the time she finished he still had not moved again and she couldn't tell if he was even still alive. She buried her face in the fur of his neck. "My wolf… My wolf…"

She bolted upright again at the sound of rustling behind her. Two more wolves had appeared.

"It's over," she whispered to herself, as she saw that there was no way for either herself or for the wolf to escape death this time. So she planted her feet in the snow, threw her arms open wide, and called out with an unwavering voice. "I won't allow you to hurt him anymore! If you want to reach him, you'll have to kill me first!"

The two wolves approached her slowly, with their heads lowered and their tails down. They whined pleadingly and tried to make themselves appear as small and as unintimidating as possible.

Could it be?

Relena sensed that they meant no harm. In all rationality, if they had wanted to, she would have been attacked long before she could have arrived at that conclusion. And so she lowered her arms.

"Are you Wolf's friends?" she ventured.

They took a step forward and whined again.

She needed no more convincing. "Can you help him?" She stepped aside.

They showed no hesitation as they bounded up to the side of the brown-black wolf and sniffed him briefly. Then one of them settled down onto the snow while the other pushed the injured wolf from the other side. Relena watched with amazement as the two wolves worked together to push him onto his back. When he was positioned so that he would not fall off, the wolves took off in the direction of the house. Relena did not understand how they knew where to go, but she had to run to follow their brisk, light-footed trot. As she did, she had the fleeting irrational thought that her wolf was so much bigger than the one carrying him that he might be crushed under his weight.

*****

She had to open the door into the house for them, but they knew to take the wolf straight into the room with the fireplace. They set him down gently and then they ran outside and back to the woods.

Relena had no more questions in her mind. Nothing surprised her anymore. She quickly worked to gather two pots of snow to boil into water – one to wash his wounds and the other for him to drink if---_when_--- he woke up. She also ripped more strips of cloth from her dress and took off the cloak in preparation for the messy work to come.

The crude bandages on his shoulder and forelegs that she had fabricated for him on the snow were already stained through with blood. She unwrapped them and threw them into the fireplace. Then she ripped several especially large pieces of cloth from her skirt. As she waited for the water to boil, she examined the wounds carefully.

They were deep, especially the one on the shoulder. The bleeding had slowed significantly though, and stopped altogether on his legs. Seeing the severity of the wounds made her heart ache and brought tears to her eyes. He had sustained all this to keep her safe. And now he was fighting for his life. At least he wasn't conscious to feel the pain. She was about to make it hurt even more.

The water had just started boiling, and she dipped the large cloth into the pot without even taking it from the fire. She waited a few seconds – she didn't want to burn him but the water had to be hot – and then she steeled herself and pressed it to his wound.

The wolf jerked reflexively but did not open his eyes.

She tried to be gentle as she did that again and again until the crusted blood was washed away and the cloth was entirely soiled. That also went into the fire, and she picked up another cloth and began the same ritual on his forelegs. The wolf never jerked again after that first time.

When she had finished washing all the wounds, she bound them again with new strips of cloth. By this time the wolf was breathing evenly again, and the breaths were almost back to a normal depth. It was then that she knew that he would pull through just fine. As she tied them off, she was puzzled to see that all the bleeding had stopped by now. She didn't know if she could trust her own eyes, but it appeared that the healing process was visibly progressing.

Relena shook her head as if to clear these strange thoughts and looked down at her now tattered and significantly shorter dress. She stood up and twirled around and felt the hem skirt along her knees. Her legs felt unbecomingly bare. She stopped twirling with her back to the wolf and clasped her hands together behind her back as she drew herself to her full height. "You'd better hope your surly master doesn't come back anytime soon. I don't know what I would do if he saw me like this," she spoke out loud, but not really to the wolf. "Right?" she turned around to glance back at the unconscious wolf.

Deep blue eyes looked up at her out of the head that still rested on the floor. Relena gave a little yelp of surprise. "You're awake!" She dropped down to her knees in front of his face. "How long…" her question trailed off as she looked toward the bandaged wounds and back again to meet his eyes, and then she knew. "The whole time?"

The wolf just gazed steadily at her.

"Goodness," she breathed reverently, "You really are some wolf aren't you?"

He closed his eyes as if to dismiss her comment.

"And why do I get the feeling that you understand every word I'm saying?" A soft touch on the top of his head brought his eyes open again. Relena had pressed a kiss to a patch of fur there. "Thank you," she whispered, her voice choked with emotion.

The wolf closed his eyes again. He exhaled a breath which made a deep, rumbling _hn_ sound, and settled down to rest.

Relena fancied that she could see the faintest of wolfish smiles on his face.


	6. The Revelation

Chapter 6. The Revelation

She tenderly stroked the fur at the top of his head, one of the few areas of his body that hadn't been scratched or bitten, and she felt him relax into sleep.

For a long time she stayed with him like this, content at the feel of him under her fingers and marveling at the creature before her. His raw strength took her breath away, his human-like intelligence defied comprehension, and his selfless devotion brought tears to her eyes. She felt unquestionably and utterly safe with this beast, and she knew that with him by her side she could face everything – the wild wolves in the woods, the man who imprisoned her here, the whole entire world, and even the loneliness inside her heart. He could make it all possible, and she found that she wanted to do the same for him. She wanted to be a source of safety for the wolf, and she wanted him to know that whatever he had to face, he would face it with her standing beside him. But, more than anything, she wanted to understand this animal – who he was, where he had come from, what he was here for.

When the events of the morning eventually caught up to her, she laid down on the rug beside the wolf and allowed herself to sleep. As she dozed, that same familiar scent was always nearby, drifting in and out of her imageless dreams. When she woke she would rest her cool hand on his warm, solid head, just to reassure herself that he was still here. And then she would look his body over, checking the dressing on the large wounds and gently feeling the areas surrounding the smaller, unwrapped ones. And then she would rest again. She repeated this cycle two more times throughout the afternoon, and every time she checked she saw that the smaller scratches were strangely but surely healing.

By the third check, the scratches had completely healed. Relena was astonished but pleased. At this rate, the serious wounds would be healed as well in a matter of days.

Darkness had fallen, and Relena realized that she was hungry again. As she prepared to eat the rest of the stew she had saved from this morning, she heard the wolf stirring, and she turned to see how he was doing.

He was in the process of stiffly lifting himself up onto his elbows. The shoulder wound looked like it pulled as he rose up slowly, but he managed the feat in the end.

As soon as she saw that he was comfortably settled again she brought the large bowl of water that she had prepared and set it down between his forelegs. "You must be thirsty," she declared.

He gave her a look of gratitude before he lowered his head to lap at the cool water.

When he finished, she took the bowl away. "Are you hungry too?" she asked. The wolf did not acknowledge her question, but stared off into space instead.

Relena decided that it was a "no," and went back to her stew with a little shrug. As she ate she carried on the one-sided conversation with her canine companion that she was so used to having by now.

"Wolf, do you mind if I sort out my thoughts? It seems as though the world has changed these past few days, and nothing is as it seems anymore." When the wolf made no objections, she took a deep breath and began.

"There are two groups of wolves living in these woods. One that hurts people and one that does not." The wolf continued to stare ahead and gave no indication that he even heard her words, but that was fine by her. She needed to speak her thoughts out loud more for her own organizational sake than anything. Besides, what else did she expect from an animal, clever though he was?

"I suppose I should start from the beginning.

"These woods were always said to be haunted. The wolves who lived here were said to be larger and fiercer than normal, and no one dared to venture very deep into its shadows.

"I have ascertained by my own eyes that there is a group of wolves who brings death and destruction, and another that is civilized. And there is one blue-eyed wolf with a golden-white coat among the wild pack…" she paused in thought for a moment. "No, not among. Leading. He is the leader of that pack.

"And the leader of the civilized pack is…" Comprehension dawned on her face. "It's you, Wolf, isn't it?"

The wolf turned to regard her then.

"Don't look at me like that, I know I'm right. Now, let's see, what else… You must have been living here with your master for a long time, so the wolves of that pack are strangers trespassing on your territory. You will fight them off, won't you? Because you will not suffer trespassers on your land."

In response the wolf made a sound like a mix between an animal's versions of a scoff and a snort. Relena ignored this and continued.

"There must be something strange about the wolves in these woods. Or, if not strange, then different. The first clue is the different colorings of both you and the other pack's leader. All wolves are supposed to have gray coats and yellow eyes, but you two are the opposites of that description. There must be a reason for that. The second clue is…" she stopped mid sentence and looked guiltily at him out of the corner of her eyes, unable to meet his gaze full on. "The second clue is your quick healing." She needed a deep breath to continue, and when she spoke it was hurried and rushed as if some part of her threatened to suppress the thought. "Don't think I haven't noticed, but your wounds stopped bleeding within an hour and the small ones healed completely within four more. I know it's not possible, but I have seen it with my own eyes! Or perhaps I am going mad… But I am not wrong!" she reiterated the fact with conviction. "Look! You are all but sitting upright a few hours after sustaining injuries that would have killed any other animal!"

She took a few more breaths in quick succession to regain her composure.

"Now the person I would like to speak with most of all regarding this mysterious matter is your surly master, my dear wolf. The one who imprisoned me here against my will and who called himself "Heero," if I remember correctly. I feel like he can give me some straight answers to all of this, but the man is conveniently out and about while his guest and his pet are left to fend for themselves for days on end. Oh but I do hope he comes back soon, for I cannot wait to give him a piece of my mind for allowing you to be hurt so badly. He is a callous man if ever I have met one."

At the declaration the wolf laboriously rose to his feet. "Ah! What are you doing?" cried Relena, who moved to support the animal. He couldn't move quickly, but his motions were steady and controlled, and he did not need her help. Nor would he be held down.

Once she had given up on trying to make him lie back down, he padded purposefully out of the room without a second glance back at her. No invitation to follow this time.

_What have I done? _She thought to herself, confused. _Have I said something to offend him? _And then… _Can one even offend a wolf?_ But with her companion gone, she had nothing to do by herself but sit and contemplate the events of the past few days and try to make sense of it all. She sat on the rug, hugged her knees to her chest and stared into the dancing flames.

*****

She had no idea how much time had passed when she heard the door of the room open again. "There you are, Wolf. Where have you gone?" she asked without breaking her gaze on the roaring fire.

When many minutes had passed and no wolf walked around the couch to sit beside her and keep her company again, she called out again, "Wolf, are you all right?" Just as she stood up and was about to turn around, an unexpected sound almost stopped her heart's beating.

"He will be fine," spoke a calm, even voice. His voice!

Relena felt as if all the air was sucked out of her lungs as she whirled around in surprise to the direction that the voice had come from.

He was standing there in the doorway with a nonchalant air about him and an unreadable expression on his face. She could tell that he had just come in from outside. There was some snow in his hair and on his cape around his shoulders, and a frozen deer thigh in one hand and a parcel in another.

Relena almost gaped at the sight of the man. After seething at him for one day and talking badly about him to his own pet for two more, he was certainly the last man she had expected to turn up in this room tonight. She was at a loss for what to do or to say in response, until she realized that her tattered dress was now only knee-length and exposing her lower legs scandalously. With a gasp of realization, she ducked behind the couch and groped furiously for something she could use to cover herself. Her fingers found the cloak from this morning, and threw it over her shoulders without a second thought.

In the meanwhile, Heero knew that she would be preoccupied with her predicament and had politely turned his back to leisurely and one-handedly remove and hang up his cape. Only when the frantic movements behind him had subsided and he was sure that she had covered her modesty again – _the flash of her legs was nothing he hadn't already see before_ he thought to himself with a satisfied smirk _after all, she _had_ twirled about just in front of my face _– did he turn around and approach the girl who was now draped in his travelling cloak and blushing hotly.

When he stood in front of her again he looked her up and down, and then nodded once. "You look good in my cloak," he said matter-of-factly while he bent to rig the deer thigh onto a spit in the fireplace. He took satisfaction at her shocked gasp and knew without looking that she was now blushing even more furiously.

"Sir," she huffed indignantly, "I'll have you know that is no proper greeting for a lady."

Heero straightened himself stiffly and dusted himself off. Relena saw that he very slightly favored his left shoulder. "It's Heero," he fixed her a level stare and informed her in an expressionless voice, but when he made no further retort, she became a bit more confident again.

"I must also inform you, _Heero_," she stressed him name in frustration, "that your pet wolf is seriously injured. I tried to tend to him as best I could, and miraculously he seemed to be healing, but you are obligated as his owner to see to his well-being."

"I told you, he will be fine."

His one-liners were grating on her more and more.

"And I am not his owner," he added after a second.

Not his owner? What could that mean? And the least he could do was thank her. Was he so heartless that he did not concern himself with the animal's injuries?

"Well the least you could do is thank me for dressing his wounds." She made her displeasure known.

Heero gave her a strange, unreadable look. After a moment, he said, "You're right. Thank you."

She blinked. Once again, he had caught her off guard. She didn't like being caught off guard, so she decided it was time to bring her prickliness back. "And where have you been all these days, O Master of the House? Will I be allowed to leave now?" _Will I be allowed to stay?_

A monotone "It's Heero," was his only response.

She threw her hands up in exasperation, parting the cloak in the process and revealing the legs that she had so wanted to hide from him to his full view once again. Heero's eyes widened barely perceptibly, and a smirk began to tug at the corner of his mouth. Relena's eyes widened too as she realized the mistake she had made, and she snatched the cloak shut. "I demand you forget that you ever saw anything! This very moment!"

"My lady, one cannot possibly erase a sight from his memory once it has been seen by his eyes," he recited matter-of-factly, but mentally he chuckled. All of her fussing when he had announced himself had been for naught, and now she was clucking like a worried hen again.

"As I suspected!" Heero looked at her with mild puzzlement and slightly more amusement. "You, _sir_," she punctuated the word with a finger pointed straight at him, "Are!" She saw the throw pillow nearby, "No!" picked it up, "Gentleman!" and threw it at his head.

Heero was now thoroughly amused as he watched her temper rise. It was positively enchanting. And the throw that she aimed at him would sail so wide to his left that he did not bother to dodge. Instead, he simply reached up with his left arm and caught it.

A sharp pain reminded him of his wound, but too late. The discomfort flashed momentarily across his face before he could control it, and in that moment she saw.

"You're injured!" She cried, pointing this time at his left shoulder. "Is it very serious?" There was no hint of her earlier frustration at him though he had been goading her so relentlessly not one second ago, and she began to step toward him.

"It's nothing," he tried to dismiss the notion.

"Don't be stubborn! I can help you dress it!" She was in front of him now and she reached for his shoulder.

He turned away from her.

"Heero, please! If you're hurt, then I—" _I want to help you!_ She had wanted to say. But in an attempt to get him to turn around and face her, she grabbed his forearm and heard a hiss of pain. The man wrenched his arm out of her grasp while her eyes widened as chills suddenly ran down her spine. He wheeled around to face her and his steely eyes glinted dangerously as he glared down at her, daring her to make the last, vital connection.

The cold glare had frightened many people before, but Relena remained undaunted. She boldly took his other hand in one of her own and used the other to lift his sleeve. Heero held still and did not fight her.

The bandage there, made of strips of the same cloth as the dress she was wearing, dispelled the last shred of doubt that she had – that she _clung_ to – and in that instant her understanding of reality dissolved with it into the nighttime mist.

Certainty. Confusion. Wonder. Disbelief. Awe. Shame. Relena staggered with the force of all these emotions hitting her at once. Her legs would not support her anymore and she sunk to her knees.

Controlling her fall, Heero followed her to the ground, and she held onto his arms as though his presence were the only foundation keeping her from completely surrendering to incomprehension.

"Relena!" he called out to her. "Relena!"

Slowly, she raised her eyes to meet his, and she finally saw that, yes, the deep blue eyes looking down at her were the ones she always knew. The ones who stayed beside her and listened to her tell her past. The ones who darkened with pain from the wounds sustained while protecting her.

"You… are… the wolf," she finally managed. _My wolf_ her mind automatically corrected, even as it threatened to shut down. "How… how can this be?"

Heero exhaled the breath that he did not even realize he was holding.

It was time to tell her everything.


	7. The Heavy Past

Chapter 7. The Heavy Past

"It all started a very long time ago.

"One hundred years ago, I was a young man living on these lands, in this very same house. With me were my mother and my father, but there should have been one other: my half-brother who was as close to me as though he were my twin. We grew up together, my half-brother and I. As children we explored these woods together, and as youths we studied together under tutors hired by our father. His talent was military; He helped me with history and strategy and philosophy, and sparred with me on many occasions to hone my fighting skills. I returned the favor by assisting him with mathematics and machinery and account-keeping, the skills that were not quite so ambitious but that had to be dutifully mastered according to our father's wishes.

"But he was not happy to be physically confined and mentally constrained. Instead of being told how to think or what to believe, he wanted to live his own life and formulate his own views. That was why he went away to pursue his ambitions, turning his back on his family and all the principles that our father had instilled in.

"One winter night, many years after he left, an old woman called upon us. She revealed to us that my half-brother had come to her asking to be taught a myriad of obscure arts, promising generous recompense upon the completion of her tutelage. She accepted him as a student, but when his studies were completed and the time came, he not only cheated on his word but also threatened her with the very knowledge that he had acquired in her apprenticeship. Now, she was here to collect her dues from the house of his father and to demand that he be made to answer for his insolence and pride.

"I was foolish. In my bitterness at his abrupt departure that was made all the more biting by the fondness for him that I still carried deep within my heart, I turned the old woman away, dismissing her with the scoff that my half-brother was his own man and that I was neither honor-bound nor in any way inclined to address the grievances that anyone took against him.

"'You will not right his wrong, though you are bound by blood? Then so shall you suffer his fate, until the day that the two of you take your responsibilities; he to pay the price, and you, as brother and a man, to enforce that.'

"With that, she laid the same curse on me that she had placed on him. Her magic bound me into wolf form when the sun is in the sky. Only under the darkness of the night sky can I take on my former shape.

"My father and mother, as well as all of the servants of the house, were spared from this same curse. But their burden was to fear, to watch as I took beast form every day at the rising of the sun, to know. Many servants left, carrying the horror with them and spreading the news that now, a hundred years later, have become merely legends. The faithful ones remained, and, along with my mother and father, attempted to care for me. But I was angry and powerless and utterly alone. I took to spending nights in wolf form as well, just so that I could run in the woods and not have to face the fear deep in their pitying eyes.

"I was not there the day my parents passed away.

"Afterwards the few who remained finally moved on as well, and this house that was as empty as my soul at last became mine. I have lived since then the way that you see now: running with my pack for weeks on end, and only frequenting the pub every now and then for news from the world of men. It was luck that had me waiting there the night you came to me. Luck… or maybe fate. For it was also that night that my half-brother returned to these lands, his home. And I feel that everything between us – this curse – will all be resolved very soon."

Heero stopped here and fell silent. Though he had a hundred years to think, to replay that fateful night in his mind, to regret with all of his heart, putting it all into words was still nothing short of overwhelming. He had never spoken so much in one sitting, and on top of that he was to begin with a man of few words.

Relena sat very still, trembling only a little bit and hardly daring to breathe as he told her his story. As she listened, it was like bricks were being stacked in her heart; Bricks of emotion as heavy as the burden that the man beside her had shouldered alone for a hundred years, weighing down inside her one on top of the other. By the time he had finished, she was sure that she could no longer stand from the weight of the knowledge.

Her only consoling hope was that if she now felt heavier, then the weight that that man carried might feel lighter, even if only a little bit.

"Come, the food is ready to eat," said Heero as he began to remove the meat from the spit. He had been tending it throughout the telling of his past.

He handed her her portion on a plate. Before he started to eat his own, he went to the door of the room and retrieved the parcel that he had with him when he first entered. This, too, he gave to Relena.

She looked at him with a question in her eyes as she hesitantly accepted the lumpy package and moved to open it.

"Some new clothes. A warm dress and a durable coat. There's some food too."

Her eyes widened in disbelief and she opened her mouth to ask him another question but he interrupted her with the answer.

"I ordered them from the tailor that first night." He was back to his one-liners.

"Oh…" Suddenly the thoughtfulness of the gesture choked her up and she had no words. "Th-thank you."

"It's nothing. Now eat." His words were getting more and more succinct, as if to make up for that earlier uncharacteristic narration.

They ate in companionable silence, each preoccupied with his own thoughts. For Heero's part, he had never spoken of the curse to anyone – the only people who knew were the ones who lived in this house, and it has been a hundred years since they passed. He was not certain about how he felt to have another human being know his secret. On the one hand, it was like a weight had been lifted; he was no longer alone in bearing this burden again. On the other, he did not know if telling that girl the details of the curse somehow brought her into it as well. On top of it all, there was the matter of what exactly he and his half-brother had to do to resolve this curse. These were the worries that Heero tried to reconcile as he chewed thoughtfully on his food.

Beside him, Relena was equally contemplative. The reality of such a thing as a wolf-curse was almost too mind-numbing to grasp, she would have to come to terms with that in her own time. But the smaller details could be considered now. Details such as the fact that all this time the wolf who was beside her was this very same man, this Heero. This person was the one who saved her, and who snapped at her; The person who saw her pick up pots with the bunched up fabric of her skirt, and who caught and cooked all the game they had been eating; The one who watched her spinning and dancing with her skirt twirling up to reveal her knees and even a bit of her thighs, and who had the consideration and foresight to order new clothes for her right after he had met her. Who was this person, this man of contradictions? Did she want to know more about him, or was what little she has learned frightening enough?

And then it hit her.

Heero was over a hundred years old.

She stopped eating and turned slowly yet deliberately to stare at him. He noticed her bewildered look almost immediately and felt a pang of cold dread in his bones. _I was wondering how long it would take her. Here's where she is overcome by fear and disgust and demands to leave._ He thought with half sadness, half bitterness.

"Um, Heero?" she asked slowly in a meek and tentative voice. "How old are you?"

He blinked. That's it? He was so relieved that he almost forgot to answer her question. It was her wide eyes giving him that inquiring gaze that reminded him that she was waiting for an answer. With a slight smile as if he were enjoying some private joke, he replied, "I am a hundred and eighteen, but I am frozen in the moment in time when I was cursed. I was eighteen years old that night, and I have the body of an eighteen year old now."

Relena nodded as if it were the most natural answer, and Heero was astounded. She was more curious about his physical age than the conditions that facilitated the situation. Had this strange girl no fear? He watched her profile as she turned to her food and finished it in one last gulp. She saw him watching her and gave a shy smile. _Yes_, he thought, _the fear of the beast that I am, the fear that was in the servants', my father's, even my mother's eyes… it is not there inside of her._ And for the first time in a hundred years his heart dared to take a small leap of hope.

As they were cleaning up the dishes from their meal, Heero saw Relena try to stifle a mighty yawn and he realized that they had stayed up almost the whole night talking. Soon it the sky would be lightening, and then he would have to return to wolf form once more. It would be better to change as soon as possible, but he found that he did not want to lose the ability to talk with her until the last possible moment. Almost on cue, Relena again tried and failed to hide another yawn.

That did it. "You need to get some rest."

Relena only nodded, barely mustering enough energy to stay on her feet and keep her eyes open. Heero helped her to the sofa. When she had lain down, he covered her with her new coat before getting his own and throwing that on top of her as well.

As he turned to leave the room, there was a slight tug on his sleeve. Heero looked down to see Relena watching him sleepily but worringly. "Where are you going?"

"I need to change forms before the sun rises in the sky. When I voluntarily undergo the transformation, there is significantly less… discomfort than if it were to be forced upon me by my own carelessness."

"I see. Well…" she trailed off, a faint pink blush starting to rise in her cheeks again, but she did not release his sleeve. Heero just waited patiently. After a few moments, Relena seemed to gather up enough courage again. "Well, do you think that… perhaps… maybe… I could… watch?"

For a second Heero was rendered speechless by her simple request. Not only was she not afraid of the beast, but she wanted to see him change? He had never allowed anybody to see him in his moment of powerlessness and shame. To him, it was such an intimate thing that never before had he even entertained the idea of allowing someone to witness it. The suggestion itself was ridiculous.

But, looking down into Relena's clear blue eyes, shining with compassion and acceptance, he suddenly found that it would not be such a hard request to honor. He closed his eyes and with a deep, calming sigh he nodded once. He was shocked again when, just before releasing his sleeve, she drew his hand close and pressed a gentle kiss on the back of his wrist, just below where his bandages ended. He heard her "Thank you" as loudly and clearly as if she had spoken it, and suddenly there was no doubt or apprehension anymore.

He walked a few steps away from her, and then he stood very still with eyes closed and hands relaxed at his sides. And then he concentrated on the feeling of being inside the body of a wolf, seeing out of a wolf's eyes, smelling with a wolf's nose, running on a wolf's feet. It only took a few seconds, during which time he felt his thoughts blur around the edges like a drawing that had been splashed with water, and then when he opened his eyes again he was on all fours.

He turned to gauge Relena's reaction and found her still watching him with a mesmerized and awed expression. The fear and disgust that he had been half expecting all night never once appeared, and this time he truly allowed himself to relax and let down his guard. She seemed to sense his contentment for she smiled softly at him as she resettled herself for sleep. Heero padded over until he was right beside the sofa and dropped himself onto the ground, stretching out to his full length and resting his head on the ground.

Just as he was dozing off he felt a small hand feeling for and finding the top of his head, followed by gentle fingers entwining themselves in the fur there. The joy that erupted in his chest in that moment was as bright as the soon rising sun, for the girl who had her hand on his head right now had not only heard his private story but seen everything about him and accepted it all. It was a foreign but miraculous feeling, and Heero allowed himself to focus on it as he drifted off to sleep.


	8. Acceptance

Chapter 8. Acceptance

They slept late into the morning. Heero woke first, but he had no pressing errands that demanded his attention today, so he contented himself with standing guard quietly over the still-sleeping Relena.

This tiny creature was confusing to him. Curled in the fetal position and covered with his large traveling cape, she looked even smaller and more vulnerable than she did awake. Why was still here? By all rights she shouldn't be able to stand being near him, especially now that she knew the truth. Where was her sense of self-preservation and fear of the unknown that all living creatures should have? He could not understand it. Any way he looked at the situation, she was foolish for allowing herself to remain at the disadvantage. As a man, he could easily envelop her in his arms, and his strength was already several times that of hers; As a wolf, he could smother her and break her neck before she could even put up a fight. If it were him, could he do the same and remain beside such a fearsome beast? He doubted it. The likelihood was very slim. If it were him, the instinct to eliminate any threats to his personal safety would overtake any pity that he might have on an animal. How could such bravery and such compassion be contained in such an insignificant, fifteen year old girl? She was practically still a child! And yet, her continued presence in this room was proof of the courage and the heart that her small stature belied.

Heero gave her hand a gentle, testing bump with his nose before he firmly pushed his muzzle under her palm. There was a sudden urge to be in physical contact with her, brought on by the gratitude that he felt for her presence, but still he rationalized his uncharacteristic action as a manifestation of his canine instincts. He would never willingly seek out her touch like this while he was in the form of man.

At the touch, Relena began to stir. Her eyelids fluttered open to the sight of a great brown-black wolf's head in alarmingly close proximity, intelligent, intense blue eyes fixed unblinkingly on her own, with her own hand resting on his muzzle. It took a second to register, and then her sleepy face broke into a bright smile. Her good friend and constant companion over the past few days had returned to her.

"Good morning, Wolf." She ran her hand down to his chin, up along his jaw, and over his ear to her favorite spot on the top of his head. The Wolf leaned into her touch.

Slowly she raised herself up into a sitting position.

"What shall we eat for breakfast?" She asked him, effortlessly falling back to their amiable one-sided conversations. She finally understood that this whole time she had been talking to Heero all along, but that still did not change their friendly human-wolf dynamic, and Relena found it to be just fine. Perfectly natural, in fact. Though she had never expected the companion who silently listened to her without judging or talking back to be the same ungentlemanly Master of the House – surly though he was – the knowledge of it now neither changed nor invalidated the days that they spent together as a girl and her wolf. Both the silent, agreeable companion and the curt, infuriating host were aspects of the same personality, the same man. After their long discussion last night, Relena was coming to see that more and more clearly.

The wolf nudged the bag of food that had been with the clothes last night. Relena opened it up and gasped in delight.

Inside were material for a proper stew – a large amount of potatoes, carrots, even some onions, which Relena knew were very rare in wintertime. Relena also saw two generously-sized loaves of bread, and her mouth watered at the sight of the ubiquitous staple after days of nothing but meat and thin, herby broths.

She took out one of the loaves and enough ingredients to make a hearty vegetable stew, and set the rest aside. Then she realized that she would need some knives to properly prepare the dish. Turning to the wolf, she called him for the first time by his name. "Heero," at the sound of his name the wolf gave a barely perceptible start. It seemed he was not at all used to being addressed by name when in wolf form. "Where do you keep your knives? I need to cut these vegetables."

At the question the wolf began to lead her out of the room. The blast of cold air that waited on the other side of the door made her instantly miss the warmth of the roaring fireplace and fully glad that she had stopped to fasten on her new cloak. Heero barely noticed the difference himself, but he sensed the slight, involuntary shiver that ran through her body. In a brisk trot, he led her to the kitchen where she picked out a few suitable tools. However, they had to be cleaned of a hundred years' worth of dust, so on their way back to the study they took a detour to the outside, where Heero volunteered his snow-melting services. Relena allowed this, though only because she was losing feeling in her ungloved hands at an already alarming rate. After only a few mouthfuls – and as much finger-numbing as she could stand – Relena deemed them sufficiently clean, and they returned to the now highly appealing fire side.

Back inside the warm room, Relena attempted to begin the preparations, but her hands were stiff from the biting frost. She tried to rub them together, but to her surprise the wolf approached her and with the gentlest of force took one of her hands into his mouth.

Relena blinked in disbelief. Her eyes were registering the sight of her own hand disappearing into a man-sized wolf's jaws, its teeth almost close enough to press little indents into her wrist. Somewhere deep inside of her, a primal fear of being eaten by a predator flared up for a split second. But Heero's deep blue eyes looking up at her from out of the predator's head made it last only for a split second. Meanwhile, her skin of her hand was overwhelmed by the heat that surrounded it, by the softness and wetness of the tongue that pressed unabashedly against her palm. She was altogether too shocked to react in any way other than to blush hotly, even after enough time had passed for the wolf to release the hand and repeat the action with her other.

After that, preparing the vegetables for cooking took hardly any time. While the stew was cooking, Relena tended to Heero's bandages. All of his wounds had closed by now. Only the two deepest wounds, the one on his shoulder and the one on his forearm, still showed the pink, tender, newly-grown skin. Satisfied that he had almost made a complete recovery, she removed all of the bandages except for the ones over the tight, slightly glossy skin. She judged that those needed a few more hours, just to be safe. "I'll take the rest off tonight," she said to Heero and watched as he gave himself a thorough shake, smiling at his almost tangible joy at being released from most of the wrappings.

After that, they did not have long to wait for the food to finish cooking. Relena, being much more interested in the bread and stew, gave the rest of last night's deer leg to Heero, who seemed equally happy with the arrangement. Out of curiosity, she offered some of the bread to the wolf beside her, just to see what he would do.

The wolf stopped gnawing on the bone that he had pinned to the floor with his forepaws. He looked, very slowly, from the offered bread to Relena's face, meeting her eyes. He held her gaze until, unable to help herself, she broke into laughter and retracted her hand. Heero silently returned his attention to the sizeable chunk of meat.

"Can we go outside again today?" asked Relena when they had both finished with their food. "I wanted to get some fresh air and… well," she paused for a moment and thought back to the last time they went out of the house. "Do you think it's safe?"

After the brazen attack two days ago, his pack had been extra vigilant in guarding the area around their injured leader's house, but he doubted that the intruders would mount another attack so soon after the first. He knew that it had been a warning, a challenge, and not a full-frontal assault. On top of everything, there was still the one absolute truth: if they wanted to hurt Relena, they would have to go through him again. Heero gave her a small nod. _You will be safe._

Together they stepped out of the house and into the snowy world. Heero stayed beside her, and Relena walked with her fingers casually buried in his brown-black fur. He was at the perfect height for her fingertips to graze the skin of his neck. Inwardly, Relena thanked Heero for allowing the contact. For her, the simple touch reassured her of his closeness, and his closeness chased away the still-fresh memories.

They did not stray too far from the house, and their walk was quiet and peaceful. Relena would point out to him the little forest animals that she saw, not realizing that his much sharper wolf senses had detected them long before she even knew that they were there. She also told him some more stories from her past – little, inconsequential stories such as the time she helped a little boy find his escaped puppy. It wasn't out of awkwardness though. The silence between them was comfortable, but their one-sided conversations were comfortable too; everything they did together felt comfortable to Relena. And the whole time they never broke their touch.

They only started to make their way back when the sky began to darken. They took a small detour when Heero led her to the spot where he buried the game. He dug up the last frozen leg and, to Relena's amusement, carried it in his teeth the rest of the way to the house.

The warmth of the fireplace welcomed the girl and the wolf when they reentered the study. Relena took some time to hang up her coat before she busied herself with setting up the meat on the roasting spit the way that she had seen Heero do it last night.

The frozen leg was as hard as rock, and could not be speared despite all of Relena's efforts. No matter what the angle, the meat would deflect the metal spit with a thunk and she would be back at square one again. Exasperated, gave the icy meat one last thump of frustration. The bone came down onto the spit which ricocheted off to scratch the tip of Relena's index finger.

With a yelp, Relena reflexively dropped the meat and jumped backwards, only to be steadied against a solid mass. She turned her head to see what she had fallen against and found those deep blue eyes meeting hers from beneath a shock of brown, wind-tousled hair. She had no time to register the transformation or the way that he was holding her in his arms before he gently for firmly pulled her injured finger out of her other hand's tight grasp. He inspected it for a second, noting the not-too-serious puncture wound and the drop of blood that was welling up, and put it into his mouth.

Heero watched her reaction closely, but he made no other movement.

Relena could feel her eyes almost bulge out of their sockets as her face lit up instantaneously in a brilliant shade of scarlet. From her half-prone position in his arm, she stared, wordlessly and frozen by shock, upwards at the point where his lips rested against her finger. For a split second her memory flashed to a very similar scene earlier in the day, but this time Heero was not a wolf. Her heart skipped a beat. From this angle, she was struck by the length of his eyelashes, line of his noble jaw, and the masculine bulge in the center of his neck – little details that she had never really stopped to notice before. But then again, she had never been in this position before, or so close.

And there it was again. His scent was all around her, enveloping her as surely as his arm cradled her against his chest. It was strange, how she had the capacity to notice everything at once and yet not enough mental power to move any part of her body in the slightest way.

A few seconds later, he released her finger and gave it another check. The bleeding had stopped, though the puncture hole was still red. Satisfied, he dropped her hand and righted her again, taking extra care to ascertain that she could stay upright of her own power before finally breaking contact. Acting like nothing out of the ordinary had happened, he left her side to pick up the meat and affix it properly to the spit. He strained almost imperceptibly with carefully controlled force as he worked to impale the still-frozen chunk of meat.

Having succeeded in the task, Heero turned back to Relena only to find her staring wide-eyed at him. She was still clutching her injured finger to her chest, and there was a strange expression on her face. Silently, he wondered if he had offended her or something, to deserve such a reaction from her. But then his sharp eyes took notice of her deep red blush and her quick, shallow breaths, and then he realized what the problem was.

It seemed that he had excited the girl with an action that, to him, was hardly remarkable in any way. This had some interesting implications as to exactly what the degree of her innocence was. _Very high_, he concluded, and he did not know why but he found that it pleased him.

But for the moment, he had to snap her out of her shock. He settled for something innocent and straightforward. A question.

"How is your finger?"

This seemed to do the job. She started and blinked at him as if she was finally seeing him in the present, and then she dropped her eyes from his to look at her finger.

"It—I think… it's fine. Thank you," she managed, while the blush slowly faded from her cheeks.

"Good. Now, do you think you could take the rest of my bandages off? You did promise this morning."

She looked surprised at the mention, but nodded.

Suddenly, she felt her face grow hot as the blush returned in full force. "What are you doing?" she demanded in a breathy shriek of panic.

Heero stopped in the middle of peeling off his shirt and looked at her. "I'm taking off my shirt," he explained flatly.

"I can _see_ that, sir, and I'm asking you to stop!" She was fairly hyperventilating now, and her voice was unnaturally high.

"It's _Heero_," he countered unfailingly. "And you can't get to my shoulder unless I take this off," he kept his voice monotone despite his slight amusement.

Relena seemed about to retort but stopped midway when she finally realized the situation. Her blush rose yet another shade at her own foolishness, but she was irritated. She knew that usually she was not this absent-minded. It must have been an affect that he had on her, she thought, and promptly decided that he was doing all of this on purpose and that this made him no gentleman.

With his shirt now off, he sat patiently and waited. He wanted her to come to him herself.

She did come, though when she proceeded to undress his wounds her movements were stiff and unnatural. She had to bring herself close to his chest as she reached around his back to catch the unwinding bandages, but Heero noticed that she was making a great effort not to actually touch his bare skin. He sighed. She was braver than he in some respects, but in others she was still a _very_ little girl.

"Why are you so scared to touch me?" He asked her directly, choosing not to spare her by skirting the issue.

She froze mid-unwind, realizing that she had been caught. Either her discomfort must have been very apparent or he was very perceptive. Or both.

"You are a man, Heero. And I am a woman. I must be careful in such circumstances… it's only proper." Her excuse sounded weak even to her own ears.

Heero suppressed a sigh. "There is no one here except for the two of us. Have we not been together in each other's company for days now? And have you not touched me and stroked my fur while I was in my other form? What makes me any different now?"

"It's not… ladylike," was her last effort, though she knew that the fight was leaving her.

He took her by the shoulders and made her meet his eyes. "Listen. I've seen you carrying pots with the skirt of your dress and gnawing at meat in your hands. There is no 'ladylike' or 'unladylike' anymore. Here, you are you, and I am me. I don't want you to hide any part of yourself from me because I fully accept you, just as you have accepted me and all of my failings."

For a moment Relena was taken aback by the honesty in his voice and the sincerity in his eyes. She searched her heart and realized that, yes, it really was more natural to treat Heero the same way that she had been treating the wolf. After all, it was like Heero himself said. Why should she treat him like her best friend one hour and like a total stranger the next?

Relena gave Heero a nod in acknowledgement, and instead of replying with words, she responded by removing the rest of the bandages and running her hands around his now-healed wound. She moved slowly, taking care around the skin that, despite appearances, had been a gaping wound a few days ago. She marveled at the feel of his skin under her sensitive fingers. It was hot and firm and soft, but underneath, the muscles were hard and defined. She slowly stroked his skin like this, exploring for the first time in her life the feel of a man's body. Throughout the whole time, Heero stayed absolutely still. When she shyly lifted her eyes, she was hit was a jolt of intensity that sparked when their eyes connected and knew in that moment that something extraordinary had just happened.

Perhaps she had been fated from the day she was born to meet the person before her right now.

Perhaps she was face to face with her destiny at last.


End file.
